Buster Douglas said:
To all you MD/DO MBA's already out there making it in real world...
When would you recommend getting an MBA (i.e. during med school, during residency, after residency, much later in life)? I know a lot of MBA programs suggest, a lot even require, 2 years of "business experience", but I was thinking, I don't wanna be wasting two years making mistakes when I could have picked up an education earlier to establish a solid foundation to build on.
We have an FAQs section on our website and this is one of the questions. Let me know if you would add anything to this:
The answer to this depends upon whom you are asking. If you ask a physician who completed their residency and then went on to practice and subsequently return to get an MBA, they will most likely tell you to get the MBA after medical school. There is a lot of merit to this because much of the benefit of business school comes from actual work experience. More and more business schools require prior work experience before admitting students to MBA programs. Although this is not necessarily true for medical students, it is true for the general population because they want students to be able to participate in the discussions and contribute to group assignments.
On the other hand, many students are pursuing the dual degree during medical school. There are advantages to this as well. Although students may not have the same kind of work experience as other MBA students, they will have a significant leg-up compared to other medical students and physicians. Additionally, medical students that are trained in business can figuratively ?grow up? in the healthcare world with the eyes of both a clinician and a business person. Perhaps this sort of perspective would reduce the number of errors and mistakes an experienced clinician might otherwise have made! Furthermore, going back to school after you?ve been practicing for several years could be quite expensive. You will compromise your earning potential for the sake of school and you will be doing this (most likely) while trying to raise a family.
http://www.md-mba.org/applying.html#A
Let me also add that I think that between your 3rd and 4th years is an ideal time to get the MBA. For one thing, you have a year of wards under your belt and many schools consider this "one year of experience". Additionally, you get a better sense of how a hospital works and how doctors think...although trust me, this is far from real world, especially in an academic setting. This is far more "idealized" than the real world because cost is not as much of an issue as private practice nor are the patient loads and feelings of personal responsibility. Additionally, medical school is a great time to stay in school. What I mean by that is that you are already in the school mentality. True, after the first two years, lecture classes are probably the last thing you want to do, but compare this with residency or being in practice. Would you rather take time off during residency? How about when you are practicing? When you have your own practice, you will most likely have additional home responsibilities i.e. family and you will most likely have financial obligations i.e. home, pay back loans etc. above and beyond what you have ever had before.
Anyway, just my $0.02, I'd be interested to hear other perspectives.
